Sprint offering ZTE Fury Android phone for $20

Sprint is releasing a smarphone, the ZTE Fury, that will cost $20 after a mail-in rebate. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

The barrier for most people in getting a smartphone is the initial cost of the phone, as forking over $200 and then agreeing to at least 2 years of a contract is daunting. That said, Sprint wants to make it easier, as the carrier is offering an Android phone, the ZTE Fury, for $20 with a 2-year contract.

Smartphones getting cheaper

Smartphones are amazing in a lot of respects, as they allow the user to combine a host of functions in a single device. One’s phone can become their PDA, phone, computer and also entertainment complex all-in-one, and the apps can be pretty cool too. That said, there are some serious hitches. They are expensive and wireless carriers force the buyer to buy not only a data plan to go with the text and phone allotment, but they also want to lock the customer into a 2-year contract. That said, the phones are getting cheaper. A person can basically get a smartphone for free these days, though the cheaper phones are often the less desirable ones. That said, Sprint is launching a new smartphone that costs $20 and has features of much more expensive units.

The sound and the ZTE Fury

Sprint, according to CNET, is launching the ZTE Fury, which will be available in stores by March 11, as a budget model smartphone with some decidedly non-budget features. It’s a 3G phone and it can also be used as a mobile hotspot and provide Wi-Fi to up to five devices at a time. The Fury is powered by a 1 gigahertz processor and comes with 4 gigabytes of memory, though it can be expanded to up to 32GB as it takes a microSD card. According to PC Magazine, it also is running on Android 2.3 or Gingerbread, as Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, is still only being installed on select devices. There’s no word on whether it will, however.

Families in mind

The phone also has access to Sprint Family Services, a selection of apps from Sprint that users have to subscribe to. Those apps include Family Locator, which tracks phones for $5 per month, Mobile Controls, which allows parents to remotely monitor their child’s phone and content for $4.99 per month. The phone can also be equipped with Sprint’s Drive First which, for $2 per month, locks the phone down when it is traveling at more than 10 miles per hour. The phone costs $19.99, according to Engadget, though that is with a 2-year contract and after the buyer mails in a $50 rebate.